Well - It's been a very long time since we've been on here. Mainly because there just hasn't been anything to report. We've been desperately trying to pull things together so we can begin the lifestyle we want - and suddenly in the last few weeks it's all been falling into place.

So I am delighted to be able to tell you that as of 1st September we will be renting 4 acres of land (although we already have access to it now). We picked up 14 rescued battery chickens this morning and put them into their new home. It's horrific seeing the state some of them are in - but satisfying knowing that we will give them a great new start.

In fact - only 2 hours after putting them into their new home we had our very 1st egg!

We've also got a tractor! It's a compact Ford tractor in very good condition. It's already stored up at the farm so there's loads of plans to use it.

Anthony finishes work next week (redundancy) so launches his new business officially after that (property maintenance / handyman). The idea is that the business will give us some initial income which will go back into the farm for now, and the recycled wood business will be in the background for now while we get established.

On the farm we're planning to get a couple of pigs and a couple of goats to start with, along with the chickens, and grow a ton of veg / fruit. Eventually we'd like to add in more chickens that we breed ourselves for meat (rather than these battery ones which are just for the eggs), geese and bees.

And although we're not living up at the farm, it's only 3 miles away so easy to get to each day.

So finally - things are coming into place. All we need now is for me to find a way out of the day job while still being able to cover living expenses and we'll be sorted! :-)

We're not too good at updating this, are we?! Never mind. We've been busy though - Anthony's just finished his prototype for a new product, and I'm busy designing him a proper website. (I'll let you know when I've finished so you can have a look and comment if you like.)

He's decided to diversify from just wood products (although the wood stuff is definitely still ongoing). The principle behind everything he makes though, is that it's all recycled from what others have discarded as waste.

So here is the prototype chiminea that he's done this weekend.

The gas bottle on the left is to show what the chiminea was a few days ago! It's really good - it kicks out so much heat it's going to be fabulous for those long, late, spring & summer evenings in the garden.

I'll let you know when the website is finished.

Happy new year everyone. We're on a real mission to get our lives how we want them this year. We wanted to share our almost perfect evening last night with you as it really felt like an achievement to us - it's exactly what we're trying to do.

(This picture looks a lot brighter than it actually was - that's the camera flash at work there!) We spent the evening cooking over the open fire, by candlelight. It was great. No electricity (apart from the things like fridge freezer etc) - just candlelight. Heat and cooking source was from the wood which was all free - discarded pallets that someone didn't want. Anthony made the stand in the fireplace from some old chair legs, a few bits of box section he had in the garage left over from another bigger job, and an old cooling rack welded onto the top. Entertainment for the evening was provided by a combination of cooking the vegetable casserole in the pot on the fire, watching and playing with the dog and cat, and chatting over a glass of home-made apple wine (made from windfalls).

Sadly the veg weren't all home-grown but we're getting there!

It really was what we're aiming for in life - getting back to basics. It was so satisfying doing everything like that. We both got a real sense of achievement from the evening. Cooking was an event that we both shared. Not using electric was also great - it really shows if you need to it's actually quite easy to live frugally but still eat well and be happy. In fact happier.

Here's to even more of the same. (I'm wondering whether wind-up laptops exist...!)

Us x